Views From Kennewick

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Arabian Sex Tourism

Posted GMT 9-20-2007 17:2:0

Indian media have been publishing exposés documenting the foul behavior of Gulf Arabs in the southern Indian town of Hyderabad. "Fly-by-night bridegrooms" by R Akhileshwari in the Deccan Herald and "One minor girl, many Arabs" by Mohammed Wajihuddin in the Times of India are two important examples. Wajihuddin sets the stage:

They are old predators with new vigour. Often bearded, invariably in flowing robes and expensive turbans. The rich, middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are history. These Viagra-enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage.

(I have silently corrected some typos). Wajihuddin then specifies the problem:

Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single sitting. "The Arabs prefer teenage, virgin brides," says Jameela Nishat, who counsels and sensitises young women against the malaise.

The Arabs usually "marry" the girls for short periods, sometimes just a single night. In fact, Wajihuddin reports, marriage and divorce formalities are often prepared at the same time, thereby expediting the process for all involved. Akhileshwari notes that "their girl children are available for as little as 5,000 rupees to satisfy the lust of doddering old Arab men." Five thousand rupees, by the way, equals just a bit over US$100.

An Indian television program recently reported on a show-casing of eight prospective brides, most of them minors, at which they were offered up to their Arab suitors. "It resembled a brothel. The girls were paraded before the Arab who would lift the girls' burqa, run his fingers through their hair, gaze at their figures and converse through an interpreter," recalls one of Nishat's assistants.

Wajihuddin also offers a specific case history:

On the first of August, forty-five-year-old Al Rahman Ismail Mirza Abdul Jabbar, a sheikh from the UAE, approached a broker in these matters, seventy-year-old Zainab Bi, in the walled city, near the historic Char Minar. The broker procured Farheen Sultana and Hina Sultana, aged between thirteen and fifteen, for twenty thousand rupees [DP comment: that equals US$450]. Then he hired Qazi [DP comment: an Islamic judge, usually spelled qadi in English] Mohammed Abdul Waheed Qureshi to solemnise the marriage. The qazi, taking advantage of an Islamic provision, married the girls off to the Arab. After the wedding night with the girls, the Arab left at dawn.

So much for that "marriage."

Sunita Krishnan, head of an anti human-trafficking organization, Prajwala, makes the only too-obvious point that girl children are not valued. "If a girl child is sold or her life ruined, it is not a national loss, that's why this is a non-issue, both for community and to society." With the exception of Maulana Hameeduddin Aqil, the head of Millat-e-Islamia (a local organization, apparently not connected the notorious Pakistani terrorist group), who speaks out against these sham marriages ("They are committing a sin. It's not nikaah, it's prostitution by another name"), the Islamic authorities in India are almost all silent about this travesty of the Shari'a.

For their part, Muslim politicians in the city of Hyderabad apparently could care less. "It's not on the poll agenda of any politician," says Mazhar Hussain, director of a social welfare organization, the Confederation of Voluntary Associations. The Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslameen, the main party of Hyderabad's Muslims, is blissfully unconcerned: "You cannot deny that the fortunes of many families have changed through such marriages," MIM's president, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, cheerfully points out.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

More Charges Dropped in Haditha Case

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Charges have been dropped against a captain who was accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

Capt. Lucas M. McConnell of Napa was granted immunity and ordered to cooperate with officials looking into the November 2005 killings, the Marines said in a press release.

Charges have now been dismissed against four of the eight Marines who were initially charged with murder or failure to investigate the deaths. A battalion commander has been recommended for a court-martial; a final decision is pending.

The killings occurred after a military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb that killed a Marine driver. Members of a Marine squad shot five men by a car, then killed 19 others as they cleared several houses in hopes of finding whoever set off the bomb.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis dismissed dereliction of duty charges against McConnell on Sept. 12. and determined that "administrative measures" were an appropriate punishment, the Marines said.

More Charges Dropped in Haditha Case

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Charges have been dropped against a captain who was accused of failing to investigate the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha, the Marine Corps said Tuesday.

Capt. Lucas M. McConnell of Napa was granted immunity and ordered to cooperate with officials looking into the November 2005 killings, the Marines said in a press release.

Charges have now been dismissed against four of the eight Marines who were initially charged with murder or failure to investigate the deaths. A battalion commander has been recommended for a court-martial; a final decision is pending.

The killings occurred after a military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb that killed a Marine driver. Members of a Marine squad shot five men by a car, then killed 19 others as they cleared several houses in hopes of finding whoever set off the bomb.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis dismissed dereliction of duty charges against McConnell on Sept. 12. and determined that "administrative measures" were an appropriate punishment, the Marines said.

Yet Another Cartoon of Blasphemy (Update - Meow-hammed!)

Dhaka, Sept 18: Authorities in Bangladesh on Tuesday ordered the arrest of a cartoonist and confiscated copies of a major newspaper’s weekly supplement for publishing a “blasphemous” caricature.

“The government has confiscated the issue as the cartoon hurt the religious sentiment of the people. Moreover an order was issued to arrest cartoonist Arifur Rahman,” an official statement said, referring to the weekly caricature supplement “Alpin” of the Prothom Alo newspaper.

The mass-circulated daily, however, immediately apologised and announced withdrawal of the cartoon.

A group of people torched copies of the paper after publication of the cartoon yesterday and several Islamic groups protested, saying the drawings ridiculed prophet Mohammad and his close aides.

They demanded “exemplary punishment” of the paper’s editor and the cartoonist.

(Hat tip: Killgore.)

UPDATE at 9/18/07 8:50:10 am:

From a Bangladeshi blog, here’s the dreaded cartoon of blasphemy—it’s the Meow-hammed cat!

Translation:

* Boy, what is your name?- My name is Babu.* It is customary to mention Muhammed before the name.

Anti-jihad graphic novel!

Speaking of CartoonRage, here's some more. Created by an ex-Muslim cartoonist, Bosch Fawstin, as a response to 9/11, "Pigman" is a ruthless counter-jihad superhero. In the upcoming graphic novel The Infidel, to be released in chapters beginning late fall 2007, Pigman's creator comes face-to-face with the enemy in the form of his brother. Here is Pigman's principal enemy, SuperJihad.

Will the death fatwas fly when Pigman appears? Will he be intimidated or frightened into submission if they do? Or will he stand up and fight more fiercely than ever? Oh, how will our hero ever get out of this one? Stay tuned!

A Northern California junior high school history teacher is telling angry parents the letter to President Bush he sent home with their children for them to sign may have said they wanted to renounce their U.S. citizenship, but he never was going to mail them and he only meant for them "to start a discussion."

According to administrators at Bidwell Junior High School in Chico, Calif., the letter Mike Brooks sent home with his eighth-grade students was part of his lesson plan on the Declaration of Independence.

Brooks told the Chico Enterprise Record the letter was his attempt to put America's founding document into current language and he intended for his students to take it home for their parents to review and discuss with their children.

(Story continues below)

The letter, sent without an explanantion or disclaimer, concluded by saying, "After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but a free and independent member of the global community."

Principal Joanne Parsley said Brooks was counting on the students to explain to their parents the letter was part of the lesson plan.

"The point was, I wanted to ask parents if they would sign such a letter if conditions that existed prior to the Revolution were happening now," Brooks said. "I just wanted to start a discussion."

The letter certainly started a discussion in the home of Michael Hill, whose daughter Kaytlen, 13, told him she was supposed to bring it back to school, signed the next day. When he quizzed her further, she told him about the classroom lessons behind the letter.

"The lesson being taught in class was that the U.S. kidnaps innocent people and takes them to Cuba, where they are kept indefinitely and tortured," Hill said he learned from Kaytlen. When he asked if the teacher had mentioned Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. is holding terror suspects, she told him, "Yes."

Brooks also told the class illegal wiretaps and other types of government surveillance were being directed at innocent people, according to Hill's daughter, who was in tears when she told her father.

"I think I was more irritated by the classroom discussion than the letter," Hill said.

Some parents signed and returned the letter and it resulted in a "wonderful discussion" in class about attitudes in Revolutionary times and those held today, Brooks said.

"When it was written, the Declaration was considered an inflammatory document," Brooks said. "There were a lot of loyalists around then."

Parsley said she and the district's assistant superintendent were shocked when they first saw Brook's original letter, which had been sent without administrative approval, but she said she didn't believe the teacher had any political agenda he was pushing.

On Wednesday, Brooks sent a second letter home to parents explaining the assignment and assuring them it was only meant for classroom discussion, and Parsley sent letters of apology to irate parents.

On the same day, Michael Hill had his daughter transferred to a different history class.

From http://worldnetdaily.com

Now I ask you, what would YOU do if this happened in your child's' school?

This is written by Army Lt. Col. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a year tour of duty in Iraq and is now back at the Pentagon.Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Web site.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

"This hallway, more than any other, is the 'Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew. Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area. The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares.

"10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden .. yet.

"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. 'My hands hurt.' Christ. Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

"They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

"There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

"These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years." Did you know that? The media hasn't told the story.

When federal agents searched the men's car, a Toyota Camry registered to Megahed's brother, Yahia Megahed, they found the stuffed pipes wrapped in plastic bags in the trunk alongside a 5-gallon container of gasoline... Potassium nitrate is a low-grade explosive otherwise used as fertilizer. Kitty litter bound the ingredients while syrup could add fuel.

"I think you can safely say it's a bomb," said Edward Dreizin, a New Jersey Institute of Technology chemical engineering professor.

Agents also found a box of bullets underneath the front passenger seat, where Megahed sat. On a laptop hastily unplugged, agents discovered sites that concerned them, including searches of Qassam rockets, weapons developed by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, often made with steel pipe, liquid sugar and potassium nitrate...

When the men were taken into custody, they were questioned separately. But when they were placed in the back of a squad car together, the conversation -- in Arabic -- was recorded by a hidden microphone. Megahed reportedly asked Mohamed what happened to the pipes, if they exploded.

As investigators researched the mens' backgrounds, they found more disturbing information. In July, Mohamed posted a YouTube video that teaches viewers how to use a remote-controlled toy car as a detonator. The video's narrator says that it was intended "to save one who wants to be a martyr for another day in battle."

Mohamed admitted that he made the video and uploaded, according to authorities.

Authorities were also concerned about Megahed's recent predeliction for firearms. He recently bought a rifle, discussed purchasing a Beretta handgun, and joined a shooting range. The rifle had a telescopic sight, which is used to increase its effective range.